Johanna Rothman

JUNE 24, 2021

He thought agile approaches would work to “meet” and “enforce” deadlines. I asked Brad these questions: Do you have product or feature teams that are cross-functional and can release alone? ( Component teams create interdependencies and take much more time to finish work.). Why do you have deadlines?

Agile 84

Agile Meeting Software Government 84

Johanna Rothman

DECEMBER 11, 2019

We had (and still have) too many products to keep the same teams on them for a long time. For programs, the team stayed together and moved to a different feature set/internal product until the program finished. We could move to a new product and/or a new team. My job was to smooth the way for people to deliver products.

Agile 60

Agile Productivity Management Meeting 60

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Once the team completes that highest priority feature(s), the team can release the product. When we release, we can regroup and figure out what to do next for this product. Fork another product. (I I did this with several Lite vs Pro products using this approach.). Opportunities for More Agility.

Agile 111

Agile Productivity Management Development 111

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Back in Part 1 , I wrote about how stage-gate approaches were as agile as we could use at the time. We had one delivery, so our agility was about canceling the project if we couldn't finish it. Once our customers saw demos, they wanted to change things. Opportunities for Agility. So, more agility than a serial approach.

Agile 116

Agile Development Productivity Management 116

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 20, 2020

I discussed the origins of the agile approaches in Part 5. In this post, I'll discuss how you can create an agile approach that fits your context. Why should you create your own agile approach? Because your context is unique to you, your team, project, product, and culture. What do you need? Start with the Team.

Agile 60

Agile Culture Productivity Development 60

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops About 20 years ago, I taught a project management workshop to IT people. Their products and services did not ship outside the building—their products and services enabled the organization to make money. See Customers, Internal Delivery, And Trust for a recent post about demos and trust.)

How To 123

How To Efficiency Meeting Productivity 123

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Even if a 5 to 7-person team falls into the Everyone Starts Their Own Story trap (see Who’s Playing Agile Schedule Games? or Create Your Successful Agile Project ), the team can still know what's going on. Then, I watched Drunk Agile Episode 75: Team Size. That's when the culture of experience spat in my face.

Agile 109

Agile Culture Efficiency Development 109

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 21, 2019

I started asking if you actually need an agile approach in Part 1 and noted the 4 big problems I see. Part 2 was why we need managers in an agile transformation. Part 4 was about how “Agile” is meaningless and “agile” is an adjective that needs to be applied to something. That would be resilient.

Agile 65

Agile Culture Efficiency Guidelines 65

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

In Part 1 , I suggested that when we organize by function, the recognition and rewards might prevent a successful agile transformation. In this part, I’ll discuss an option for a product-oriented organization. Consider a Product-Oriented Organization. That includes product ownership. How Many Managers Do You Need?

Productivity 65

Productivity Agile Efficiency Management 65

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 28, 2019

You have an agile roadmap to see where you're headed. Your team hates having to translate the agile planning into more traditional planning. If you're in this pickle, your manager might think your agile team doesn't replan very often. That manager might assume your team uses an agile approach only as a way to deliver.

Data 68

Data Agile Culture Management 68

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 30, 2020

If you're creating products of any kind—especially software products—you've got a team sport. Successful software product development is about how well the team learns together. The better the team learns together, the better the product is. See Product Orientation Requires Technical Excellence ).

Management 92

Management Agile Metrics Video 92

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 2, 2023

The first is that Brooks strongly suggested the idea of a “surgical team” That hierarchical team was a feature- or product-based team. Ten people, seven of them professionals, are at work on the problem, but the system is the product of one mind–or at most two, acting uno animo.”

Agile 93

Agile Analysis Management Productivity 93

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Your customers can't take your product more often than once or twice a year. Because the product doesn't need to leave the building, the teams don't release internally. Nor do the teams demo on a regular basis. The teams miss the feedback loops so critical for an agile approach. Their agile transformation falls apart.

Agile 58

Agile Productivity Retail Management 58

Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

and Create Your Successful Agile Project. The closer to the left your products are, the more your managers might be open to changing their behaviors and the culture. TL; DR: “Stop making it harder” is a culture problem. The small-c culture in my team (we would call it a product team now) helped me learn a ton.

Culture 125

Culture Management Productivity Agile 125

Johanna Rothman

JUNE 17, 2021

I see too much micromanagement, even in supposedly agile organizations. ” When we have insufficient trust, morale and the products deteriorate. Instead, we can extend trust and keep innovating for morale and the products. ” Or, when a manager imposes a “standard” agile approach.

Leadership 74

Leadership Agile Management Training 74

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 30, 2020

If you're creating products of any kind—especially software products—you've got a team sport. Successful software product development is about how well the team learns together. The better the team learns together, the better the product is. See Product Orientation Requires Technical Excellence ).

Management 52

Management Agile Metrics Video 52

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 24, 2023

For years, we've used several metaphors to describe software product development: People-based metaphors, such as: Man-weeks for all the humans working on a project or a product. See Why Shared Services “Teams” Don’t Work with Agility. Demo inside the organization. Is releasing a product anything like giving birth?

Construction 78

Construction Resources Productivity Development 78